Understanding People
by ellabellbee
Summary: Parker follows up with Archie's daughter after their confrontation in "The Last Dam Job".  Episode tag.


**Parker has something she has to do after the end of "The Last Dam Job".**

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><p>She stared between the cracks in the fence at the house across the street. It was large for the city, and probably quite expensive too, but her well trained eye wasn't looking for the possible wealths inside. This was quite a different type of mission.<p>

It was too quiet. She wasn't used to not having voices in her ear, though the sounds of the neighbourhood made their own melody. She clocked the cars going past, the people on bicycles, and exactly when the woman in the windows upstairs moved from room to room.

On another home, she might not know exactly what to look for, and while she had never been to this address before she knew the style intimately. There would be security cameras that no one was watching (or maybe he was, but it wouldn't really matter - he hasn't come home yet) and a block on the sidewalk with a pressure trigger that alerted to a light in the bedroom, and maybe even his phone. The windows would normally be locked quite tight from the inside, but the woman had opened them all long ago.

When Nate told them to scatter until the post-Latimer situation cooled down they all did, and she promised Hardison that she would meet up with him in a few days. She originally missed the look of disappointment, but Sophie intervened, and soon Parker was explaining to Hardison that she _did_ really want to spend time with him, but she had to do something first.

The woman in the window stopped whatever she was doing before and leaned on the sill, looking ponderous as she gazed across the neighbourhood and sighed heavily, but Parker knew there was no intent behind her gaze. She wasn't looking for anything, then. Parker wondered if she had ever just looked out of a window without looking for escape routes, or clocking how many people were around, or watching for potential threats. Parker and this woman shared very little, except for one of the most important things.

Another car turned onto the street and then parked in the driveway, a woman slightly younger than the one in the window coming out. She was dressed a little more fun than the older one and a little more practically with flat shoes and a ponytail. It was the middle of the week and Parker briefly wondered why they weren't at work, but then she remembered. It was probably because of her.

The woman in the window, Karen was her name and Parker supposed she should start referring to her as that, retreated down the stairs, and she knew she had to act fast. She waited until the woman from the car, Grace, she remembered, entered the house and closed the door behind her and then Parker dashed over the fence and across the street, mindful of the pressure sensitive sidewalk blocks. She was between the house and the fence and scaling it to the open window before Grace had even set down her purse, and into the upstairs bedroom before they even started talking.

"I got your message," Grace said to Karen. "You actually talked to dad?"

"Just a message, straight to voicemail. He said he'd becoming back in a few days, that he was safe and we'd have a big talk then, that he would explain."

"I still don't believe it, Karen, that dad had an affair."

Parker could stand as still as a statue for hours, but at hearing that she fidgeted. She never meant to make things difficult for him. She moved a few inches at the bedroom door so that she could see them in a picture's reflection, and smiled at the placement of the frame. Archie had the angle of the glass perfect to spy on anyone in the living room. Parker's own attention to detail paled in comparison to his.

Karen sighed and even though she was exasperated, she sat delicately on the couch instead of flopping down onto it as Parker would have. Her voice came out quietly now, and Parker had to lean in to hear it. "She looked like she was in her mid-to-late twenties, maybe. And then I thought about it. Don't you remember, when we were in elementary school? He was travelling a lot, then. I thought, maybe he did have an affair. I remember mom being sad, but he had gotten that promotion, and came back with all that money." She smiled absently. "That's when we took that vacation to Disneyworld." The smiled faded. "And then about 13 years ago, he uh, he was away a lot again."

Grace nodded. "I had just graduated high school. I remember that. He seemed really distant, then. But I don't really remember the first time."

Parker fidgeted again. She thinks she finally understood why Archie wasn't home yet, even though she expected him to be. She hated being analyzed and studied. It's the worst feeling for a thief; to be noticed, or the center-of-attention. Putting off the interrogation for a few days, yeah, she could understand that.

She never wanted to make things difficult for Archie. She was just six months out of juvie when she met him, having just run away from another group home, and barely making it on picked pockets and stolen food.

And suddenly, for possibly the first time in her life, she had someone looking out for her. Even just thinking about it, she felt warmth spread throughout her. Who knows where she would be now if he hadn't stepped in and saved her. And this was how she repaid him? By barging into his life and making his own family suspicious?

Grace continued. "I remember I had just told him that I wanted to go into accounting, like him. And he… he seemed really sad, he… he told me not to. That he was already passing on his business to someone else. I wonder if that meant…"

"Parker," Karen supplied. "He called her Parker."

And with that comment she was pulled into the past again, to the first time she found out about Archie's real family. She didn't really know what she thought Archie's life was like, but she didn't think it was going to be a wife and two daughters. She remembered finding a photograph of them in the wallet that she was finally able to successfully lift.

People always said that she didn't understand emotion, that she possibly didn't even feel at all, but she knew she did. She just never had any idea of how to express it, or what any of it meant. But Archie knew, without her even saying anything, and he told her about his family.

There was his wife, Marilyn, that he was crazy about, but she fell in love with the accountant, and by the time he wanted to tell her about his true life he was already in too deep. He couldn't tell her, because the thought of losing her was too great. And then there was always the worry of what could happen if she knew too much. No, it was better that she lived in blissful ignorance. It kept them safe.

And there were his daughters, Karen and Grace, and he adored them too, even if they exasperated him. They were smart, he said, but not curious. And they had everything in their life handed to them, so he really didn't expect greatness out of them, but they were good, honest people that cared, and he loved them all the same. And the one thing that was truly able to pass onto them was the love of great art.

"But you," he told her, "you've had to make it on your own. You know that the rich have all the power. And you have the ability to take that from them. No, you don't fit in with them. You're not normal, and don't try to be. You have the potential to be _great_."

She snapped back to the present and they were picking apart their childhoods piece by piece. She retreated back into his bedroom and looked around, and finally understood what the woman in the window was doing: she was searching for something, and she certainly didn't do a very good job of it.

No, Parker tried again. She wasn't searching for _something_. She was searching for clues on where Archie was, and possibly who _she_ was. She glanced around the room again and smirked at the obvious attempts to make it look like no had been there, but it wouldn't fool anyone.

She stopped, and this time really looked around the room like Archie taught her. This was Archie's room, after all which means that his hiding place would likely be…

She quietly crept over to the closet and it was as she suspected, there was a false wall. She didn't quite know what she expected to find, but what she did startled her.

Sure, there was the book of news articles about the greatest thefts that he had pulled off, and there was a section on all of her thefts as well. But what really got to her was the single photograph of her at 14, triumphantly holding a spoon.

She felt for a minute like the woman in the window; she wasn't thinking of escape plans or listening for the people downstairs, she just looked intently at that picture, and phased everything else out. In that moment she came to a startling realization: she had made things difficult for Archie, and now she had to make things right.

It took her only a minute to patch the wall back up again, and she walked smoothly back to her post. They were still talking, but this time recounting what happened when she had recruited him.

"She stole dad's wallet. And mine, and Carrie's lollipop. She actually stole candy from a child."

Grace shrugged. "Look, we have no idea who she is, or what her story is. I'm sure that there's a perfectly good explanation for who she is and where he went with her."

Karen was silent for a minute more, before answering again, this time with her voice wavering. "I'm just worried about him. He's been so sad since mom died, and this house is just so big and empty without her. We don't know where he is. What if he needs help?"

Just a few minutes ago Parker thought she had understood why Archie didn't come straight home after the job, but she was getting an even better appreciation now. She couldn't imagine having to hide who he truly was from the people that loved him the most. It must get harder, each time, to push the thief back into the box and to become the accountant. And since he had retired from both, who was he really? She had become _Parker_ when she left behind the scared child and started fending for herself. Who would she be if she couldn't hang from buildings anymore?

Grace took her from her reverie. "Then we just have hope that this girl," she paused and let a bit of malice enter her voice, "this _Parker_," she sighed and the anger dissipated, "this unknown sister of ours, cares for dad as much as we do. And that he's safe. And that dad knows what he's doing."

"He does." Grace and Karen jumped and Parker clamped her hands over her mouth. Did she actually say that out loud?

She felt like a caged animal and wanted to flee, but she summoned her courage and walked out the door onto the landing at the top of the stairs. She knew when she was looking at the hidden picture that she had to make things right for him, and this seemed like the only way she knew how to do it. "He does know what he's doing, and I do care for him."

They looked at her strangely and gaped openly. Shock? Parker supposed, or maybe fear? She was still not great at facial expressions, but whatever they were feeling, she had to figure it out and try to explain again.

Karen piped up before she had a chance. "How did you get upstairs?"

Parker felt confused. "I climbed the wall and came in through the window. How else would I get in?"

Grace put her hand on Karen's arm, and addressed Parker with a friendly tone, completely ignoring the previous comment. "Would you like to come down?" Parker nodded, and descended the stairs lightly and quickly before stopping as still as a statue in front of them, still standing awkwardly, not liking being stared at.

"I'm Grace, and this is Karen." Karen gave a little wave, but her mouth was still tight. "I hear that you're Parker, um, our sister."

"Not really," Parker said, and she could hear two audible breaths of relief. She was never any good at explaining things, or talking, but she had to let them know… "I was in the system, and then, I ran away. And Archie found me. He got me food, and money… he taught me how to survive."

Grace nodded, as if the father that she knew was coming back to her. "But why didn't he ever tell us about you?"

Parker thought back to some of the lessons Sophie had given her about secrets and half truths. That Archie was a thief, well, that was his secret to tell. "I'm not…" she hesitated again, not looking at them, and searching for the right words. "I wouldn't have fit in."

She knew the looks they were giving her now, the ones of pity, and she didn't want any of that. "It's okay. I went out and made my own family." They smiled at her, then, and she thought things might be okay. "I just wanted you to know that. He didn't cheat on your mom. Don't be too hard on him."

It looked like they wanted to say something else, but she raced out the door. She thinks that maybe she made things a bit better, and at the very least, she didn't make things worse. And even though Karen was kind of annoying, Grace seemed okay.

Maybe one day she and Grace could go for coffee. Or maybe she could teach her how to lift a wallet. Maybe she and Archie could teach her together.

Parker smiled as she located her car a few blocks away. She was getting good at this whole people thing. She pulled out her phone, ready to continue the experiment. "Hardison? I'm done my other thing." She smiled. "How do you feel about Tokyo?"


End file.
